Antennas: Three fixed antennas and three exchangeable external antennas

Other Ports: 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 Port

Dimensions (H x W x D): 8.9 x 25.2 x 20.32cm

Weight: 726g

Design
The EA9200 is the first Linksys router that is meant to be placed vertically. There is a non-removable base plate at the bottom of the EA9200 that makes it stand vertically. It would be good if the base plate can be remove to give users a choice whether they want to place their ruter vertically or horizontally.

Personally, this is my first vertically designed router and I kinda like it because it will saves some space on my table.

Linksys EA9200 – Top

Linksys EA9200 – Front

The logo in front of the router is actually a power indicator. When it is lit, it means the router is fully operational and when it is blinking, it means the router is booting up.

Linksys EA9200 – Connected

The ports are located at the back of the router and this time round, Linksys drop support for eSATA from it’s USB 2.0 port.

Linksys EA9200 – Back

Linksys EA9200 – Ports

From left to right:

1x USB 3.0 Port

1x USB 2.0 Port

4x Gigabit LAN Ports

1x Gigabit WAN Port

Reset Button

12v DC Power

On/Off Switch

On the right of the router there are two more buttons.

Linksys EA9200 – WPS + Wi-Fi Off Button

From left to right:

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) Button

Wi-Fi Button (Enable/Disable Wi-Fi Easily)

Linksys EA9200 – With Antennas Front

Linksys EA9200 – With Antennas Back

Linksys EA9200 – With Antennas Right

Linksys EA9200 – With Antennas Left

Linksys EA9200 – With Antennas

Smart Wi-Fi
The EA9200 belongs to the EA router series and hence it comes with Smart Wi-Fi. Smart Wi-Fi allows you to control your router settings wherever you are. I will not cover it since I already covered it in my review of the Linksys WRT1900AC.

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Home

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Guest Network

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Parental Controls

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – External Storage

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Connectivity

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Security

VLAN Tagging
Similar to most high-end routers from Linksys, the EA9200 comes with VLAN tagging and because it is Smart Wi-Fi enabled, it comes with pre-loaded VLAN tags from Singapore and Malaysia Internet Service Providers (ISP). I tested it with my SingTel 300Mbps Fibre Home Bundle and it works fine. If you are using Singtel TV (previously known as mio TV), it will work for you as well.

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – VLAN Tagging

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – VLAN Tagging – Preloaded VLAN Tags

If you are using Singtel just for their Internet service and you have no VOIP or IPTV, there is a small bug with Singtel (other) VLAN tag. When you choose that pre-defined VLAN tag, it will tag your 4th LAN port with 20 (which should not be the case) and you will not be able to use the 4th port for LAN. I have already reported this bug to Linksys.

A workaround is to choose Manual VLAN Tag and tag the Internet port to 10 (which is what I did in the end) as shown in the screenshot below.

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – VLAN Tagging – Manual VLAN Tag

AC3200
The total bandwidth of the router is 3,200Mbps which is derived from one 2.4GHz band that goes up to 600Mbps and two 5GHz bands that goes up to 1,300Mbps each. If you add all three up, it will give you a combined throughput of 3,200Mbps. But unfortunately, this is just some marketing jargon because you will never archive such speed at all.

As the saying goes, “You are only as strong as your weakest link”. The reason for two 5GHz bands is because the fastest speed you get from a single 5GHz band is your slowest device’s 5GHz speed. So when there are two 5GHz bands, the router will automatically prioritizes and balances devices over the two 5GHz bands by grouping slower 5GHz devices together on one 5GHz band and the faster 5GHz devices on the other 5GHz band.

Linksys named it “Smart Connect”. Linksys Smart Connect works by constantly monitoring and moving devices to the 5GHz band which will yield the best performance for all connected devices. Devices with fast connection speeds are placed in the low 5GHz band. Devices with slow connection speeds are presumed to be legacy devices or located further away from the router and are placed in the high 5GHz band because it has slightly higher transmission power.

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Wireless – 5GHz Steering On

If one of the 5GHz bands experiences a high utilization rate, it will steer some of the devices to another 5GHz band in order to prevent oversubscription.

Linksys Smart Connect uses a bounce detection algorithm to ensure that a device is not steered too often within a certain timeframe to prevent frequent moving of devices between the two 5GHz bands. Devices will only be steered when they are idle so that their activity will not be interrupted.

You can also do the steering by yourself by turning off the automatic 5GHz band steering and that will give you the option to create two 5GHz networks with different SSID as shown in the screenshot below.

Links EA9200 – Admin UI – Wireless – 5GHz Steering Off

You will then have to connect your devices to the respective 5GHz network that you managed (which is really a hassle).

Beamforming
Similar to the Linksys WRT1900AC and Linksys E8350, the Linksys EA9200 supports beamforming. Beamforming enables the router to identify and connect directly with the devices rather than simply sending out wireless signals in a general direction. This ensures faster network speeds, better wireless range, reduced interference from other devices, and stronger Wi-Fi connections.

Just to reiterate, the EA9200 comes with six antennas. Three of them are fixed internal antennas and another three of them are exchangeable external antennas.

Speedtest

Speedtest

Wireless Strength
I am using WiFi Explorer to test the wireless strength at 2 locations in my house, my room and the toilet.

I am impressed with the wireless strength of the EA9200, it is the best performing Linksys router and it outshines the Linksys WRT1900AC on the 2.4GHz band and almost on-par with Linksys WRT1900AC for the 5GHz bands.

WiFi Explorer – My Room

WiFi Explorer – Toilet

Location

EA9200

E8350

WRT1900AC

DIR-868L

My Room (2.4GHz)

85%

55%

76%

79%

My Room (5GHz)

76%

27%

78%

91%

Toilet (2.4GHz)

64%

41%

50%

58%

Toilet (5GHz)

46%

37%

46%

55%

In terms of speed, the EA9200 outperforms all my previous routers for LAN to LAN connection. For LAN to wireless, it is the best performing Linksys router and for wireless to wireless, it still loses to Linksys WRT1900AC.

Summary
As mentioned earlier, the Linksys EA9200 is a worthy successor of the Linksys WRT1900AC. In terms of hardware, it is near the top of the line and hence it costs a premium price of S$399. But in terms of features, it is severely lacking like lack of VPN support. This is a common problem for all high end routers from Linksys.